Jeremy Levin is the CEO of Ovid Therapeutics, a life sciences company focused on treatments for rare neurological diseases, and the chairman of BIO, the leading biotech trade association, which represents some 1,000 companies. He spoke with Ken Banta, founder and CEO of the Vanguard Group for Leadership, and with various participants in the Dialogue, on April 8, 2020.

Ken Banta: Thank you, everyone, for joining this dialogue, because we know how busy everyone is. And a special thank you to Jeremy for joining this session and helping to lead it. 

These are times of extraordinary uncertainty—an uncertainty that affects us, personally, and is also affecting our people. And all of us are being called upon to lead through this period with extraordinary leadership skills. That’s the reason we at Vanguard launched this series of dialogues: They’re aimed at helping all of us explore the leadership capabilities needed during this time, in part by learning new skills and sharing our own experiences with each other. 

As some of you may be aware, Vanguard’s face-to-face programs—our Forums for Leaders and other events—are very similar in their goals, and we’re going to try to duplicate their approach and energy as much as we can here. So this is not going to be a speech by Jeremy, but rather a discussion. The expectation is that we’re all going to learn as much from each other as we do from anyone who might be speaking. 

That said, Jeremy is uniquely qualified to be helping to lead this discussion. He has been a military leader, a top CEO, a major figure in industry policy and leadership. He’s been through a lot of crises, a lot of challenges, and he’s going to bring some of that experience to bear with us today. But we also hope that all the participants will be looking to share experiences and  develop networks with one another. 

Let me begin by posing a very basic question to you, Jeremy. As you think about situations of severe crisis and great uncertainty that you’ve been through, what lessons have you learned about how to handle this kind of situation? 

Jeremy Levin: Hello, Ken, and hello, everybody else. I hope you’re safe. 

Look, there is no comparable crisis. We’ve been warned about this for years and years and years, but we’ve never gone through anything like it. At the end of the day, this is quite remarkable. 

Every nation has been invaded, every nation is under lock down, and those that aren’t are suffering the consequences. What we’re experiencing is not the kind of crisis that we have dealt with previously—the ups and downs of the market, the venture capitalists who can’t raise money, the funds who can’t invest, the policy decisions in Washington. This is not normal. This is unique. 

The nearest comparable event, or events, that I’ve experienced is actual total war. So let me walk through some of the principles that I’ve learned in that context over the years, and hopefully will be helpful for those who are listening. (And there’s some great CEOs I saw on the list—hello, John, and hello, Rick. You guys are amazing. I admire you greatly and always have.)

Managing through uncertainty is really something you have to understand in terms of its role in history. Because it’s really quite important. And in the next 10 minutes or so, if you don’t mind, I’m going to try and convey some of the tools that I use to frame my responses and to respond to that uncertainty. 

If you haven’t noticed —you probably have—strategic uncertainty of the kind we face now feels like mud. You’re walking in it up to your waist. Leaders don’t want to invest, decisions are deferred, resources are frozen. We’ve got fear, uncertainty, and doubt—which sometimes lead to really bad behavior and personal agendas. 

I believe very strongly that the organizations and particularly companies that succeed or fail will do so based on their manager’s ability to move the organization forward precisely at the time when the path ahead is not easy. 

Now when it’s easy, things are great. Market goes up, I raise capital, it’s all great. That’s not leadership. This is the moment for leadership. So I want to give you five different pieces of the framework. 

First, I want to convey to you how important it is that your company understand that it has—that it has to have—a purpose. Second, I’m going to urge you to take pragmatic action of a kind that might seem small—you’ll see what I mean by that. Third, I want you to understand what it means to cultivate emotional steadiness in this moment. 

And then fourth, you don’t know everything. You’ve got to tap into the leaders who’ve had some experience. And fifth, you need a diverse group of people around you, because of the unintended secondary consequences of what goes on in a crisis. So let me start with that, if that’s OK, Ken—I’ll try and make this very brief.

Our society and our culture conflates being mission-driven and being purpose-driven. A mission is what you’re trying to accomplish, and the purpose is why. There are many different examples of this we could go over. You could say that Apple’s mission centers on being a leading computer company, but Steve Jobs’ purpose was to create beautifully designed and innovative tech products. Two different things.

We can look at every single company in biotech and make the same distinction. But while most people know what an organization does, few know why it does it. So it’s critical at this time, if you’re a purpose-driven leader, to articulate the mission—I get it. But the reality is, if you are a purpose-driven leader, you’ve got to go beyond that. You have to articulate the purpose of your company. 

If you as a leader are not connected to why you’re doing it, then you’ll basically get distracted with any novel thing that comes along, give up on it when the going really gets tough, and, at the end of the day be, be viewed by customers and employees as totally opportunistic and averse to taking the risks that can lead to innovation. There are lots of examples of this we could go through. 

Purpose is a winning strategy. Purpose-driven companies outperform the financial markets by 40 to 50 percent. And a sense of purpose should be at the center of every company that implements growth strategy. So for me, that’s number one. 

Number two, take pragmatic action. I’m a proponent of practical approaches to dealing with uncertainty. Doing something, anything, to support your company’s success makes you and your team feel better than doing nothing. So my advice to you: go back to basics. Ask what those small steps are that you can take to deliver value, even in the fog of war. Focus on what you can control. Encourage your team to think about delivering value every day. The answer to the question of how your team can contribute to doing what matters is: by taking those small little steps. 

When uncertainty comes, first and foremost, do good work. You’ll put your company in the best possible position to navigate new strategic choices. Make intelligent bets. You’re smart. You guys are incredibly smart, but make intelligent bets. Don’t try and do giant leaps. 

When the strategy is uncertain, the best managers, in my opinion, acknowledge what’s unknown, look ahead to what is known, and what is likely to happen, even if it’s really tough right now. But the really important thing is to place intelligent bets and start to work towards a future state, even when the complete landscape remains out-of-focus, as it does today. You will strengthen your company. 

And I know this is strange, but I would like to urge you to operate in sprints. Embrace small, short-term strategies. Once you focus your team on delivering value and start to explore what’s possible, you’re prepared—you can take discrete, doable actions. And you can personally contribute to that by giving clarity to what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, how you’re doing it. 

So move your team forward. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in war, whether you’re in business. Move the team forward. 

The next thing is to cultivate what I call emotional steadiness. All of us are pushed out of our comfort zone right now. Me? Absolutely. I don’t have a comfort zone in this environment. 

When there’s a clear, simple direction to go in, you can focus on defined targets and you can deliver results. It’s easy. And you can smile, and you can stand up there. 

But when the strategies shift and things are really uncomfortable, it’s normal to feel unsettled. It’s OK. And you’ll see this in your team. So I want to ask you to do a couple things about yourself to help your team. 

Number one, be proactive. This is very important. You need to basically say to yourself, “I need to learn more.” One of the reasons I suggest action is because you’ll learn more about whatever you’re doing, you’ll move forward on that, you’ll get beyond your raw emotions. But there’s more than just that. Questions will come up: How will this impact my group? How will this alter things? Job changes, layoffs, lost resources, all these things. Ask others in the organization for insight, context, and clarity. Learn from your team. When you’re done, and you’ve done some sense-making, you’ll be able to anticipate questions. 

Number two, you need to be intentional about the way you show up at work. As a leader, your role is to be calm—doesn’t matter what storm’s going on. Be transparent and steady while you’re painting a vision for the future, even if it’s short-term. Acknowledge how you feel, talk to your peers, talk to your bosses. I’m not afraid of saying I’m uncertain. Anybody I work with on the BIO board knows that if I’m saying I’m dead certain I need to go where I’m going—boy, they know I’m really blowing smoke. 

Play out the worst case scenario in your mind and then move on to the more likely outcome. Chances are, reality won’t be as bad as what you conjure up when your emotions are really tight. So try and avoid stress-response frustration. And—this is critical—avoid rumor. Avoid it like the plague. If somebody comes to you with something, ask for facts. Your team is going to be watching you. 

And keep communications wide open. Listen all the time. 

Associated with that is the next point, tap into experts. 

I don’t really believe there is anyone who has an answer right now. But if you collect enough people from the outside who’ve got expertise, you will learn from them. You’ll learn what to do with this. I’ll give you an example. 

One of the members of the BIO board, who’s on this call right now, brought this crisis to the attention of the board, so we turned. This was an expert, somebody who really understands China, really understood what was going on, the terrible effects that were happening there, and could see the tsunami coming. By simply listening, you change, and you’re a better person for it. 

So just imagine what your most respected leader’s approach would be. And then talk to other managers. I’m not a great one for embracing the wisdom of so-called thought leaders unless you can really pick them out. But many of you are very wise, and you can. And so I urge you to do that. 

And then I’ll leave you with the last thought before I turn it over to Ken. And that is, you’ve got to expand the tent in this moment of crisis. There’s a need for a broad range of perspectives, to make up for blind spots. We all have them. 

Even if you’re an expert before the crisis, you will have a need to be outside your wheelhouse. Take shelter-in-place orders as an example. They’re very important, but they’re very hard for recovering substance abusers. Just imagine what would happen if you didn’t take that into account in planning. Or, say, the potential impact of shelter-in-place on somebody who’s a domestic violence victim. 

That’s an unintended consequence. It’s an extreme example, but it’s an unintended consequence. And everything we do in biotech and in our companies is about this. So in addition to having the obvious stuff like solving for the economy and the sick COVID patients, I would ask you to really think about what the second- or third-order consequences are that crop up because of solutions like shelter-in-place—or you can draw the analogy in your own company—that you put in place. 

One person can’t think of all the second- and third-order consequences. You need to bring in people who represent all the stakeholders in your system. And you can only do that by having all stakeholders represented, and by testing your solution on them. For example, asking them, “how will shelter-in-place impact your constituents? What needs do you anticipate?” That’s the only way you can make an informed choice. 

And that reinforces the value of diverse teams. So it’s true in peace time and doubly true in crisis. If your normal team is already representative of all your stakeholders, great. It’ll be that much more seamless to respond to a crisis. 

So, in summary, I’ve offered you five principles to operate from. To be leaders, you need to assume that when we emerge from this crisis, the world will not be the same. Those who do not learn from this are doomed to fail in this new world. And managing through this uncertainty is now going to be the norm. It’s going to be managing for the reality. Thank you. 

Ken Banta: Jeremy, thank you. It’s great to have the authority of proven experience brought to bear. At this point, let’s extend the dialogue to everyone in the room, and encourage all of you to either share a comment or observation, or ask a question of Jeremy. And it may be that there’ll be someone else in the room who can help answer it as well, or at least respond. So let’s go ahead—Lori, perhaps we can see if we have some people who would like to raise their hands. 

Lori May: I have Beth Schurman. Just unmute yourself, Beth. 

Beth Schurman (Partner, Herspiegel Consulting): Hi. First of all, thank you, Jeremy, for making yourself available.

I’ve seen you talk previously at BIO events. I’m curious about your perspective on how the pharma industry can help adapt, and help health care providers who are adapting to telemedicine now, and make that a more productive outcome for patients. We’ve been hearing that new product starts are slowing, that it’s really only managing urgent matters. I myself have done telemedicine—it’s very transactional. As this situation maybe lasts for quite a bit longer, I wonder what the pharma industry could do to help support that? 

Jeremy Levin: Well, the good news is I’m not a representative of the pharma industry. And our organizations [in BIO, the biotech trade association,] are largely the smaller ones. That being said, there are representatives of the pharma industry on the call who have large companies and are probably better positioned —I don’t know if John Oyler’s online, or Rick Winningham. They both said they might be able to attend today, but I think they would be best positioned to answer. 

I will say the following, though. You need to take real pride, Beth, in the way that the way that the pharma companies are working. For example, I’ve not seen this before, but they’re talking about how to integrate manufacturing, they’re talking about how to integrate and best take advantage of some of the biotech opportunities that come their way, in a concerted fashion. Essentially, each one is defining its own particular role, but they’re all making a contribution. 

I’ve not heard, particularly, this specific aspect of how they might help telemedicine. I’m sorry, I don’t have information on that. But if there’s anybody else in the audience who does, I ask them to speak up. 

Lori May: Well, how about—John Oyler is here. Why doesn’t he—I’m going to open you up to speak. 

John Oyler (founder and CEO, BeiGene): Hi, Jeremy. 

Jeremy Levin: Hey, John. 

John Oyler: Very nice to hear your voice. And it is calming. So thank you. 

I think that we first started to go through this with the virtual team and our clinical team in China, and I think we’re trying to figure it out with everyone else. But we do believe that there’s a role to be played in this forum. 

I think there’s different rules that probably come into play in the way that you can interact with people country-to-country. I’m not an expert in exactly what we’re doing, but I know that with the China team, there has been a very different way of doing educational programs. In China you have a market where innovative drugs are getting distributed much more broadly across the country, and where you don’t have clinicians experienced with these drugs, and they do need a lot of education. I think that some of the things that had been done in small in-person group meetings have really changed into very large forums. And some of those forums are hospitals— they’re clinicians, they’re KOLs, and actually patients are attending. 

So I do think that there’s been some powerful new tools used there that have been very helpful with new drugs that are launching, and also with existing drugs, as people are just trying to educate the next smaller hospital down the chain. How that is going to play out from the United States perspective—I think our organization is trying to understand that. And of course, rules are different, and policies will be different, and practices will be different. 

And certainly at the moment, I think our experience, both from a commercial and a clinical perspective, is 60 percent of people are overwhelmed right now. And they’re not really in that stage of being interested in engaging in any way, shape or form, other than, “could you please get us PPE gear,” which is what we’re trying to do as an organization. 

But from the other perspective, I do think, in China, that over a short period of time they’ve gotten through the things that they need to  in most areas, and there is an ability to interact and engage. And I think that we’ll see that more broadly across the world in the upcoming months—with the caveat that I’m not an expert in the rules around how you interact commercially in all those different countries. But that’s very, very important for patients and for clinicians, because there’s an education process there. 

I also think that right now it’s hard for patients to come to hospitals. So of course, you’re also seeing clinicians try to understand, what’s the science and the thought process around switching from an inpatient therapy to an outpatient therapy? And there is thought and science around that, and learnings, probably, from other places. So I think it’s important that we have these interactions. But I think it’s evolving and you’re absolutely right. 

Jeremy Levin: Thanks, John. And Beth, just one last point. I’m aware of, as I was thinking about this, Novartis put in place a way to reach over one million health care workers on a live telemedicine program to teach about new drugs. And that was quite remarkable. 

But what’s going to come out of this particular crisis is we’ll learn how to use these tools, and they’ll become the norm. And I think the whole business model of many of the companies will change fundamentally. But John, thanks for your comment. 

And Beth, I’m sorry I don’t have a direct answer to you, but I think this is all just taking place in real time. And it goes well beyond just offering gloves—or, for example, sterile materials that have been offered by the biotech and the pharma industry to hospitals—well beyond that. Your question goes to, how do you launch drugs, how do you teach people about them? And I think we’re just learning about that. 

Ken Banta: Thanks, Jeremy. Lori, who else can we recognize? 

Lori May: How about Sean Morgan-Jones? You have a question?  

Sean Morgan-Jones (Chief Commercial Officer, Morgan Prestwich): Jeremy, fellow Brit to fellow Brit. The sun is shining. It’s 5:30 in the evening, or 6:00 in the evening here, the sun is shining remarkably. We’re hearing very good news about our prime minister, who looks like he’s stabilized and is coming through all of this. So some small comfort. 

But Jeremy, I thought your analogy to total war was absolutely spot on. And if ever there was a reason for folks to collaborate around a central purpose, this has to be it. And I think my question is really around, is this an opportunity for the industry? And I’m saying big pharma and biotech, to change the calculus on societal perception of our reputation, which historically is very low for all sorts of reasons. 

I mean, the only people I ever meet are trying to do the right thing by patients, and yet their reputation is pretty poor. And I noticed that President Trump hosted the first COVID task force meeting —I think it was at the end of February. And along with the usual suspects, the big pharma, GSK, Pfizer, et cetera, there were some companies that perhaps weren’t as well-known names, if you like, to the layperson. Moderna, Regeneron, Inovio, companies like that. So my question, Jeremy, is, can the industry use this as a jumping off point to adjust or change the calculus on societal perceptions of the industry? 

Jeremy Levin: What a great question, and there’s a long answer. But let me just, first, say two things. Delighted to hear about Boris Johnson. That’s good news. Number two, I am in the process of re-registering in the UK, and we’ve called up 27,000 physicians and those of us like myself who were prepared to see patients late at night are doing it. 

Now, with regard to reputation. Look, we’ve had deaths by a thousand cuts over the last 30 years. The industry has allowed itself to fall into this position. Whatever the reasonings for that, let’s not go into them. I have very strongly-held views on that. 

But you can’t dig out of that hole. The hole which is represented by the Gallup poll before this crisis, which put us at the bottom of the pile, and one which Meg Tirrell reported that we still are in, distrusted by 54 percent of the population. We’re not going to get out of this by any one small solution. 

So my observation on this is that several things have to go right. Number one, we as an industry really need to buckle down and take the weight of finding a solution here. And we’re doing that. The 270 different discovery programs and vaccine programs that are ongoing. And coupled with that are the huge efforts by pharmaceutical companies, who you really have to take your hat off to, and we will take our hats off to. 

But then you have to platform this, get to solution. That’s number one. That’s our children, our families, as well as the public. That is who counts on us right now. This is the front line. 

And by the way, I’m not discounting doctors and nurses who are dying looking after patients. They are really taking the brunt of it now. But in the future it’s up to us to prevent this ever happening again, and also to solve for today. So what is it that we can do? Number one is solve. 

Number two, we have to shine the light outside our own borders. We have to get to the grass roots. Now, one of the ways that I believe we can do that is by broadening the base of people who hear what we’re doing. Quite frankly, nobody really understands the difference between a protein therapeutic, an antibody, a small molecule, a CAR-T, a pill. When you get down to the street, it’s too complicated. 

So we need to get the message out—to open the kimono in a way that we’ve never done before, to show what we are doing. Now, there are different ways of doing that. BIO is thinking through that. And we’ll be really thoughtfully asking the question, how can we get to the school kids? The college kids? The doctors, the nurses? Because if we don’t do that, then all we’re doing is we’re talking to each other. But at the end of the day, if you don’t have the cures, and then you don’t tell people about what you’re doing, nobody will know. 

And there is a third component. We as an industry must call out those who behave poorly. We’ve not done this. We’ve been reluctant to do it under any circumstances. It’s not that we don’t feel comfortable about doing it, our investors don’t like it, our boards are worried that people know investors. It’s not right. 

When somebody does bad, say it. It’s OK. Shkreli was bad, finished, we know that. But he’s not the only one. We have to walk the talk. 

Number one, we do what we do best —find medicines. Number two, we communicate to people as broadly as we can—and now, in the next several months, we tell them what we’re doing, so that they can see the efforts. And thirdly, we actually do walk the talk. We actually go and call out bad people. 

So sure, it’s not an easy answer. And I don’t expect the public to turn around and say you guys are heroes. It’s not going to happen. It’ll take time because we’ve let the base of trust erode over 35 years. And it’s deeply hurtful to you, to me, to everybody who goes in every day and tries their very best. But we are inheriting the consequences of bad behaviors that took place over the years, and we cannot deny it. It’s just really bad. 

Ken Banta: Thank you, Jeremy. What we’d like to do now is change things up a little bit, and hear from a few colleagues about two concepts that we’ve been discussing a lot today. One is trust and earning trust, and the other is building a sense of purpose. And we’re going to look at both in terms of how one pursues these things inside an organization, with one’s team. I know Nancy Lurker was hoping to join us. If she is available, it would be great, Nancy, to hear from you. 

Nancy Lurker (CEO and Board Director, EyePoint Pharmaceuticals): Thank you, Jeremy, as well, for what you’re saying. It couldn’t be more true. So let me say a couple of things. 

Some of this, I would say, should apply to how pharma and BIO respond to how we reach out to Americans about this. And I certainly am doing this with my company, or trying to, which is, number one, my goal right now is to make sure that my company knows that I care, and that the management team cares. And if we don’t come out of this with our employees knowing that we care about them, then something’s wrong. 

The second thing is that I’ve always been a big fan of getting away from corporate speak. Too many people fall into that lingo because it’s comfortable and they don’t have to think. But people see right through it. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to take risks and be human. Even showing you don’t have all the answers, as you mentioned, Jeremy. 

A couple of things I’ve done: I’ve posted a few videos to all my employees with me at home with my kids, my dog, talking about my days. And I’m not dressed up, so that they see, OK, this is my life. I’m just like you. I’m dealing with things as well. And I’m just doing little things, like, I sent them all a box of oranges to stay healthy. Obviously we’re all about the communication, and that’s good. But you need to go a step beyond. 

We are taking a bit of a hit financially by not asking people to take PTO. Now, I will be candid with you. At some point, unfortunately, we did have to have a recent downsizing. We’re not cash flow positive, so we’re having to be very careful with our capital. But we’re also making sure that we’re not doing too much, or more than we have to. 

And lastly, I will tell you, if we have to go another step, my management team and I are going to be taking pay cuts. I think we have to lead by example. If we’re furloughing employees—we haven’t gotten there yet —we have to share the pain. And I think too many of us aren’t willing to do that. So that goes back to, how do we show them that we care? We’re in this with them together. 

Ken Banta: Thanks a lot, Nancy. I’ve observed you a long time as a leader, and this is not a new phenomenon in terms of the way you operate. It sends a really spectacular message and sets a great example for others as well. 

I think we also had, hopefully, Anthony Johnson available. He was going to talk on the same subject. Anthony, if you’re on the line or available—

Anthony Johnson: I am on the line, and I hope you can hear me OK. 

Ken Banta: Yes. 

Anthony Johnson (President and CEO, Goldfinch Bio): Great. So I think Nancy made some great points. Just to add to that, in our company, at Goldfinch Bio, we’re a kidney company, we’re focused on personalized meds, and so I’m constantly reminding our team of their overarching purpose. And I think Jeremy covered that well. 

In times of crisis, it’s really important to keep everybody focused on the end game. Step one for me has been to get informed. So I’m getting broad input frequently so I can really understand what the issues are linked to this crisis. 

Secondly, our team, and I’m leading this, are taking initiative in problem solving. Now, in our case, we’re in the middle of fundraising. So some investors are pulling away because of the crisis. But yet, we’re executing clinical trials as well. And they are becoming harder to execute. So there’s a number of issues to try and resolve there. 

In addition, we have a critical experiment to start up in our lab. And all of these issues require problem solving. But we’re dealing with it by the third thing—Nancy covered this—by communicating. We’re sharing effects, we’re sharing our reality as we face it now, and I’m providing overarching encouragement and keep continuing to remind people about the focus we need. 

And that brings me to the fourth thing. We’re focusing on short-term value-creating actions that we can take. I talked about fundraising, I talked about the lab experiments, I talked about getting our clinical trials executed. So that’s what our team is focused on while I continue to remind them of the longer-term goals. We’re the kidney company in personalized medicine, and we keep using various ways to remind people of this. 

I think lastly, I’d say, we’re learning about our new reality of video technology. And I think this will be something we’ll be a lot better at at the end of this crisis. 

Ken Banta: Anthony, that was great. A quick question for you. Every organization has some people who are handling the situation relatively well, and then for other people it is really very, very difficult for various reasons. How do you, or do you, kind of diagnose who is especially in that latter camp, and what can you do about it? Or is it really impossible when it’s a distance communication situation? 

Anthony Johnson: Yeah, great question. Great. I mean, you highlighted a number of subpoints there. What we’re trying to do is start with information. So we have a number of different teams. We have a COVID response team. We’re constantly communicating information as we get it. And that’s one way of reducing the anxiety amongst our team members. 

Secondly, we have the individual’s managers talking with them and understanding risk tolerance, and a concern about continuing to work in the lab or continuing to work in various ways that involves connectivity with others. And to be honest, we’re very, very sensitive to people needing to volunteer, particularly in the lab setting. We’re learning a lot about ourselves, about each other, but we’re recognizing that through this crisis when we come out the other end, how we treat people will be pivotal, not just for our company, but for how our company interacts with all their partners. 

Ken Banta: Got it. Thank you very much. The other person we were hoping might be online and be able to give some thoughts on the same topic would be Mark Goodman—of Debevoise and Plimpton. I’m not sure. Mark, are you on there? 

Mark Goodman: Yeah, I’m here. Can you hear me? 

Ken Banta: Yes, we can. Thank you, Mark. 

Mark Goodman (Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton): Great. Well, thanks for having me. And Jeremy, thank you for doing this. Very enlightening. Nancy and Anthony have said a couple of things that kind of resonate with what we’ve been doing. 

As Ken said, I am at a law firm. So we are a professional services entity. And we have, around the world, about 800 lawyers. 

And one of the things that’s important for us to recognize in this situation is that hundreds and hundreds of our employees, particularly our young lawyers who’ve been out of law school for anywhere from one to five years, have never experienced anything like this before. So a lot of them are in their first job, and they are facing, really, the first crisis, professional crisis that they’ve had to face.

And so we’ve worked very hard, as it sounds like others have as well, on just reassuring our colleagues that the firm is a place that is going to protect them, that we’ve been through crises before. The firm was founded in the wake of the depression, and we remind our colleagues that that’s how we started. And we’ve been through many, many of these situations before that have, in one way or another, challenged the firm. 

And so we want our people to know that our first priority is to protect them. And that we’re going to get through this together. We have—Nancy made reference to this—we have really tried to stress the coming together that this has allowed. 

So suddenly for the first time we are Zooming into one another’s kitchens, and living rooms, and studies. We are seeing one another’s children and dogs run across the screen. And I think for a number of our colleagues, that was all kind of intimidating and concerning at first, but we have told our colleagues that we view that as a plus not a minus. And we’re really learning things about one another and engaging one another in ways that we never have before.

We have made people understand that the firm’s financial position is very sound. We have a reputation for being a firm that does not put the partner’s compensation above other things that are more important. And we’re going to make clear to our colleagues that we are going to walk the walk in this situation, and we have reassured people that we’re not planning to do any layoffs, we’re not planning to do any furloughs or anything of the sort, at least for the time being. 

We have hired some experts so that we can get information from third parties. Early on, we hired a leading epidemiologist from a university, the name of which you would recognize, and we’ve been getting information from him and communicating that immediately to all of our colleagues. We’ve put a lot of emphasis on communication at all levels.

All of the partners meet at least once a week by Zoom. All of our practice groups are being required to meet every week. All of our teams are meeting multiple times a week by Zoom, so that we are all communicating on a very frequent basis. We have encouraged associates and staff to ask questions. We’ve given them a platform to ask whatever questions they they’d like to ask, and we answer those in full firm meetings. 

And I think one of the really important things is that we have made it clear that we are going to trust our associates, our younger lawyers, to do the right thing. So we have not been overly prescriptive. We have tried to communicate directly and indirectly that we trust them. And when they work from home, they’re going to have to balance things that they haven’t had to balance before. And we’re going to let them work through that in ways that work for each of them individually, and not impose on them requirements or strictures that are not consistent with their home situations. The key for us is that they understand that they have a certain amount of work to get done every day, and the way they get that work completed is really something we’re leaving up to them. 

On this issue of purpose that Jeremy referred to, and that, Ken, you asked about. Our purpose is pretty focused as an institution. And that is to work closely with our clients to solve their most serious and challenging problems. And that’s always the case, whether we’re in a COVID pandemic or not. And not surprisingly, many of our clients—not only our paying clients, but importantly, our pro bono clients—are facing challenges, problems, issues that they’ve never faced before. And they are relying on us to work with them to help them solve, or at least mitigate, those problems. 

On the issue of, what is our purpose? We really have inculcated or tried to communicate to everyone the importance of our being in a place to protect our clients in a time when they need extra and innovative protection. And so I think people have really stepped forward and actually done even more than they normally do because they feel a professional commitment to helping people who are really in need. And you can imagine that our pro bono clients, people who are homeless in New York, for example, in a crisis like this, need particular assistance. And so as part of a description of our purpose, we’ve tried to make sure people understand that there are a lot of people out there we can help, given the skill set that we bring to bear. 

Ken Banta: Great, thank you for that. And thanks to all three of you for those really interesting and to-the-point ways of coping with this matter internally. We have a few more minutes for some questions and comments from the room. Anyone who has something, whether fresh or responding to some of the things we’ve talked about already, please just raise your electronic hand. 

Lori May: We have Kenneth—is it Moch? I apologize if I pronounced it wrong. 

Kenneth Moch: No, you got it perfect. So—

Jeremy Levin: Hi, Ken. 

Kenneth Moch (former President and CEO, now Advisor, Cognition Therapeutics): Hi there. This has been a great dialogue. And I just wanted to drill down a little more specifically. 

Jeremy, in your role as chairman of BIO, among other things, I was wondering—given the collective work that’s going on within BIO—what else the organization can do to help alter the image of the industry, to make sure people understand the message. And then maybe granularizing that even further, qhat else you believe that CEOs, many of whom are on this call, obviously, can do to help people better understand the value of this industry? 

Because one of the things I think we all fear is that, during the crisis, people talk about the need for this industry. And the moment it’s over, just like the rating approval note that just came out a couple days ago from Meg Tirrell and others, we go back to being a hated industry for some set of reasons. So I wondered both collectively at the BIO level, from your perch, and then individually, what can be done, as you see it. 

Jeremy Levin: Ken, thanks. And just for those on the phone who don’t know, Ken is one of the few leaders in the industry who has gone through massive crisis. And just read a little bit about it—he’s somebody who knows about crisis and knows how to think through it, and the consequences of managing it in different ways. 

So Ken, touching on both those questions. Number one, what can BIO do? Well, BIO was formed 17 years ago, the merger of two different organizations, and “grew up” under the tutelage and leadership of Jim Greenwood. And I think what BIO can do most effectively now is to focus the attentions of all of its CEO members,  every single one—this is not a time when the representatives of those companies should be involved. This is a time when every single CEO should be engaged totally with BIO. And I think BIO has done a jolly good job of that. Part of that needs to accelerate. We’ve not reached out. Everybody’s got their own problems. But as a unified industry, we are incredibly strong. 

Don’t forget, we generate 70 percent, or about 70 percent, of all the new products in this country, and a huge percentage of the novel products around the world. We can’t let that strategic engine falter at all. So, unifying everybody—and having the most efficient modern processes for doing this. I think BIO has made a good start by having a two-day convention, about 10 days ago, where we brought together 45 of the different companies who were working in COVID—and now there are many more—and put them under the leadership of a great leader, George Scangos who is running the task force of all of these different companies. 

Now, I think what we can improve there dramatically is to be very nimble in making sure we understand what the problems are of those particular companies that are trying to get the attention of different members of Congress, different agencies who are busy generating new monies for them, the regulatory agencies. So I think we’re doing as much as we can at the moment, but I think we have to go even one step further than that. 

And then associated with that is you have a great set of communications. We need to tell everybody about that. Under the leadership of the communications team at BIO, there is a superb ability to get out and tell the story. It needs to go even a step further, Ken. I believe we have to reach every single corner of this country and tell them about what’s going on. Not just helping our members, not just unifying them as I said, but also absolutely telling the story and focusing on the mission. 

And that mission is different today than it was before. Portions of it are the same. But the vast bulk of what BIO is doing now is to really unify as an organization, unify the people who support it, and then absolutely get that story out as much as we can to the people around the country. 

What does an individual do? Well, look, you’ve known me for years,  and I do exactly what I believe is the right thing to do. What I do know is that this is new for me. I know I’ve never operated like this. But starting six weeks ago, I put in place a whole set of ways to understand how our clinical trials would be impacted, how we could now evaluate our patients as they go through the pivotal trial. And we accelerated the enrollment. 

But we were fortunate in doing that. We preplanned a lot of this. So the impact has been there—is an impact, but it’s not as severe as it might be. So on the outside, we prepared for it. And, oh, by the way, that means we will have a different way of operating. We’re learning now how to do this better after this event. 

And then, internally, every morning at 8:30, I have coffee with my entire company. The entire company. Every day I tell them, you are going to break for one hour, you’re going to have lunch. You’re going to definitely break for lunch. You cannot sit in front of a computer all day. We tell each other the stories of what’s gone on at that coffee. So I know exactly what’s going on in their minds. 

I support them. They’re a fantastic group. They performed impeccably. And I can’t tell you the unity that this event has brought in that group because we communicate, because we know where we’re going, and because, for us, we’re dealing with rare disorders, Ken. It’s little, it’s not the big companies, we know that. It’s very difficult to reach to those big patients. But we have doubled down on reaching out to those patients that matter to us—Angelman, Fragile X, epileptic encephalopathies, we are doubling down. 

And if you looked at PBS last night, you saw us right there talking about patients, patients, patients. So the purpose for us is very much ensuring that we change the lives of these patients. And the implementation of it, and the strategies are changing. We’ve got digital, we’ve got ways of communicating. We reach around the world. 

So, Ken, every company is going to do it a little differently. But I think you start with communicating and ensuring that your team is glued together. And you support every single one of them. 

Ken Banta: So Ken and Jeremy, thank you very much for that. And it looks like we are out of time. 

Lori May: Oh, Ken. Can we just go to Eric Dube? He’s been waiting very patiently. 

Ken Banta: Oh, sure. Let’s do that, of course. Sorry, Eric. 

Eric Dube (President and CEO, Retrophin): All right. Ken and Jeremy, thank you so much for hosting today. And Jeremy, thanks for sharing your thoughts. And particularly, we as leaders in the industry, you’re urging for us to come together. I think it’s a fantastic example of how companies are looking at tackling COVID-19 and how we need to stay committed to our purpose around innovation. But I think there’s a third challenge, and I really want to challenge all of us to think about how, as part of a BIO or as part of this industry, we tackle what inevitably will happen on the other side of this, which is that the access and affordability challenges are going to be even greater, not just in the US, but worldwide. 

And I think, as we’re seeing the opportunity for us to come together and collaborate as industry leaders, we have to think about how do we tackle some of these challenges, because fundamentally that’s what’s at the heart of this trust and reputation issue—we can come up with incredible cures and innovation, but if people can’t access it and can’t afford it, there’s a real issue. 

And I am already seeing signs, because we’re a company that also has commercially-available products, that it’s a challenge. And it’s only going to get worse. And I wonder how we can challenge ourselves to think differently so that it’s not the governments that are trying to find solutions to COVID and deprioritizing some of these other challenges, that we come up and offer real solutions that are going to help with these challenges. Because otherwise the affordability that we’re all working on in our pipelines is going to become even harder to reach. 

Jeremy Levin: Eric, great comment. I couldn’t agree more with you. Waiting for Congress is a disaster. Waiting for the Senate is a disaster. Waiting for the White House is even worse of a disaster. We, ourselves, need to come up with this. 

And we offer these things and we need to really drive them. But you’re right. Collectively, there are some of the smartest people in the world running the companies that we work with. And we’re very fortunate. We need to come together and we need to make this a priority post this event. 

And there will be a post-event. We are going to come out of this. There’s no doubt. But we’re going to come out different, and we should behave different.

Ken Banta: Absolutely. And that was a great point to end on. Eric, thanks for raising that critical factor. 

We’re about to bring this session to a close. We’re looking forward to a continuing series of dialogues—this was the first, we hope you’ll join us for others. 

Upcoming soon will be one with David Pyott, on April 21, and then on May 6 we’ll be joined by Vivek Ramaswamy, both really interesting and significant players not only in health care, but in leadership. And following that we’ll be announcing a further series of these dialogues, some of them with health-related faculty and others with other individuals. And we’re looking forward to announcing those.

We’ll be sending around an email to everyone who participated, as well as everyone also who was invited but couldn’t make it. And that will include ways to access this on replay, and also to access some further information on the topics that we’ve covered. I’s sort of like a mini curriculum, if you like, of top leadership learning on these subjects. We hope you’ll be able to take advantage of it. 

So all that remains for me to do is to, again, say thank you to Jeremy—thanks for those insights. Thank you also, to everyone in the room, both those who commented, which was great, and those who were developing their thoughts and thinking as leaders, which was equally important. We look forward to meeting with you again soon. And for now, goodbye and stay safe. 

This transcript has been edited for clarity and concision.